Council Approves Funds For a Full-Time Detective

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of June 4th, 2013

By a unanimous vote of 5 - 0 (Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen and Bill Erxleben were absent), the Newcastle City Council voted to approve funds for a full-time detective (Christy Marsalisi)
for the Newcastle Police Department.  Police Chief Melinda Irvine told the Council that this would be a good step to take after she made a summary of the responsibilities of a detective and noted an overall increase in crime in Newcastle over a period of years, particularly an acute increase in burglaries.  The current part-time detective would now be phased into full-time over a period of about 6 months, which means she should be a full-time member of the Newcastle Police Department on or before New Year's Day, 2014.

By a vote of 4 - 1 (Carol Simpson dissenting), the Council approved a resolution for a public participation and work plan for the Comprehensive Plan (now, called Newcastle 2035) update as recommended by the Planning Commission.  Simpson's reason for dissenting appeared to be on a technical point, not on the general resolution.

Other business discussed or scheduled for the June 4th agenda was the 2014 - 2019 Transportation Improvement Program as introduced by Public Works Director, Mark Rigos, and the evaluation of a proposed sidewalk extension on 129th Avenue.  [N.P.R. did not stay for the entire meeting.]

At the beginning of the meeting, during public comments, Lee Strom asked the Council to look into the possibility of having bike lanes on 88th and 89th streets similar to those on Newcastle Way and 116th street

City Manager Rob Wyman said he would look into the matter of Council Candidate Mark Greene's lawn signs being taken down, unauthorized, and apparently, according to Greene, by a certain work crew.

[updated on 6/6/13, 1:00 P.M.; revised on 7/16/13]

Earthquakes and Washington

This topic for N.P.R. was totally unplanned until an airing of "Inside Olympia" was showed on the TVW cable station, today, but they had an interesting show to remind us that we live in an earthquake zone of the world, sometimes referred to as the Pacific Rim of Fire, and that all of us should be prepared for a possible natural disaster emergency.  Particularly worrisome is the possibility of a great earthquake (N.P.R. can't recall the exact term that was used) as opposed to the "shallow" earthquake of 2001 that caused havoc in Washington, though few casualties.  They said the great earthquake could happen anytime, from now to 500 years from now, and that everybody should have an ample supply of food and water in reserve.  N.P.R. doesn't feel experienced enough to make any technical suggestions, but everyone should research for themselves and have a plan on where would be the best place for immediate safety during an earthquake.  Every city in Washington should have some kind of earthquake and/or tsunami preparedness plan at the ready.  By the way, "Inside Olympia" (channel 23) does a lot of re-runs within the same week, so this particular show might still be airing, and is probably on the internet as well.

400 Tens From 400 Citizens For a Green Earth

The election for Newcastle City Council really has only one race this year, between me and my opponent, so once again, in politics, it's a contest between The People and The Establishment.  I hate to say this, but that doesn't bode particularly well for my campaign, because the Establishment, writ large, despite their poor record, manages to dazzle enough people with glitz and gloss to win almost every election, to the point that The People have become practically demoralized and are hardly trying to win elections anymore, however, I am still trying.  The Establishment has pulled us into debacles from everything to nuclear waste contamination at Hanford Reservation to, among many other crises, the gigantic, Texas-sized waste dump in the Pacific Ocean that few of them even care about, let alone do anything about.  However, humanity will ignore the pollution and devastation of the great oceans of the world to our detriment (as the title of this blog infers, this is especially not incidental to this area), which is why we must begin to win elections and form policy.  It starts with The People running for local councils such as what I'm doing, then moves up to the state and national legislatures, and on and on.  A victory in Newcastle, and other small victories here and there (other American towns and cities), will be the necessary incremental small steps to recapture the greater commons and the environment.

I have agreed, through the auspices of the Public Disclosure Commission, that my operating budget for this campaign will be no larger than $5,000.  With 400 Newcastle and nearby community citizens (or from any state in the nation) sending me $10 each, that will account for 4/5 of that ($4,000), with the last 1/5 as a buffer in which some larger and smaller contributions could fill and to ensure that not one penny in campaign operations will go over $5,000.  I wlll use this money for signs, buttons, fliers and general campaign paraphernalia.  One of the side panels of this blog will show how many tens have been received and how many are left to go to reach 400.  The checks should be made out to Mark Greene for Council, P..O. Box 612, Belle., WA 98009. Thank you!

- Mark Greene

[revised on 6/1/2013; 1:35 P.M.]

Greene to Unveil Green Energy Proposal

Council candidate, Mark Greene, will detail an energy proposal and plan for the city at the early-July council meeting.  Greene would like Newcastle to take from the example of Lund, Sweden and start a geothermal plant to help residents save on energy costs and possibly start the city on the road to the green energy center of Washington state, where "green" companies would be given a big welcome by City Hall.  Greene envisions two or three small office buildings being built in Newcastle where a consortium of innovative green energy companies would set up shop and thus contribute to the economy of our city, including jobs for our residents.  The contents of Greene's speech will be written on Northern Pacific Report a day or two after the meeting.

Disinformation

N.P.R. took down the previous post, "Fait Accompli?" because of apparent disinformation, which we thought, before we knew it was disinformation, was 90% credible, but it appears more like 50 - 50 after receiving more information from other sources.  Nobody really knows how these endorsements are going to pan out exactly, and we can't let this campaign be disrupted or made to make bad strategic moves based on rumors anymore.  There will be no more predictions about endorsements from this blog -- they will be what they will be when they're announced or publicized.  It has been an inauspicious start to the official campaign.

Update:  the Council's philosophical wing chart isn't necessarily static, and was recently updated (5/29/13) on the "Buri Takes Baton" post.  N.P.R will stay atop of the situation and let you know about the changes when they occur.  Philosophy includes the whole spectrum, by the way, which for Newcastle means the triad of economic, environmental and social policies.

[updated on May 29, 2013]

Update: About Readership & Comments

UPDATE -- MEMORIAL DAY, May 27, 2013: our "Memorial" poem, in honor of our deceased servicemen and servicewomen in battle in the late 20th and early 21st centuries was published on May 24, 2009 on our Senator blog.

N.P.R. is very pleased that the page views for this blog has risen over a thousand per month for the first time, which is good news for Mark Greene's Council campaign, which very much needs that trend to continue upward.  A big thanks to those who have put this blog on their networking/social media sites, especially those that may be seen by citizens from Newcastle, Washington.

Another reminder: N.P.R. welcomes comments on this blog.  All comments will be moderated, meaning, looked at by N.P.R. before being published, but no comment will be rejected merely because of disagreement or pointing out something on N.P.R. that may be in error.  The only comments that would be rejected are those that are uncivil or not on topic.  To make a comment, click on where it has the number of comments already made, or "no comments," or "post a comment."

Update: the previous post, "Buri Takes Baton," was revised on 5/27/13 and now shows the 2 philosophical wings of the Newcastle City Council.

Note:  Mark Greene has revised his campaign website, primarily to show that the election will go straight to the General Election on November 5.

Most recent Council Meeting posts: "Buri Takes Baton," "Road and Waste Management Policies," and "Austerity Versus Practicality."

[revised on 5/27/2013]

Buri Takes Baton

City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of May 21st, 2013

Lanky, youthful Steve Buri, the unflappable, soft-spoken councilman who often lets Bill Erxleben or the Mayor run the show, has been taking more of a leadership role at meetings, lately, now that Erxleben is a political "lame duck."  Effectively, Buri has taken the baton of leadership from Erxleben for their dominate wing of the Council (including Dulcich and Bissett), and although both are fiscally conservative, they don't necessarily come down on the same side of votes.  In early May, Buri guided a divided Council to pass the Solid Waste Interlocal Agreement (garbage pick-ups), with Erxleben among the dissenters, and the day before yesterday, Buri took charge, again, essentially serving notice to the upper political chambers in Olympia and Seattle that business as usual could no longer be sustained.  Buri spoke somewhat extensively about the allocation of funds for transportation, and though he gave an astute and balanced assessment of the situation regarding planned toll roads, he showed a glimmer of populism as he seemed to sense the underlying disgruntlement of the community regarding tolls and transportation in general. 

The Council was united in conducting the agenda, as they voted unanimously (6 - 0, Erxleben was absent) on the following three major agenda items, all via resolutions:

• Awarding a contract for an updated transportation and parks impact fee.
• Approving an updated collective bargaining agreement.
• Approving a settlement, that included a city job lay-off, regarding a labor grievance.

Note: regarding aforementioned phrase, "lets ... the Mayor run the show," this is meant in the colloquial sense, as Mayor Rich Crispo is the legally authorized head of the council proceedings.

Update: the Newcastle City Council has two right-of-center philosophical wings and a centrist, which can basically be divided as follows (this chart is solely N.P.R.'s opinion):

Conservative Wing: Steve Buri, Bill Erxleben, John Dulcich and Gordon Bissett

Moderate Conservative Wing: Mayor Rich Crispo and Deputy Mayor Lisa Jensen

Centrist: Carol Simpson

Philosophy includes the whole spectrum, which for Newcastle means the triad of economic, environmental and social policies.

[revised on 5/29/2013]